Perspectief 2015-29

2015-29 The Making of an Ecumenical Text 13 Reag eer According to the two 1990 meetings 17 , the purpose of the study on ecclesiology would not be to produce a detailed ecumenical ecclesiology which would replace the existing (Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical) ecclesiologies, but “basic common ecclesiological perspectives”, “common and converging lines of ecclesiological thinking”, which would “bring together in a coherent form the results of past and present ecumenical dialogue” that had emerged from past and ongoing ecumenical dialogues, which would constitute a sort of framework that would help the ecclesiologies in dialogue to address remaining (and emerging) controversial issues 18 . The final result would be a convergence text “in the style and format of BEM” 19 . The main content of this kind of meta-ecclesiology would include topics such as the church in God’s design, the biblical teaching on the church, the church as part of the creed; Trinitarian and missiological perspectives; the church as creatura verbi ; the church and humanity in light of the Kingdom of God; the church as mystery and prophetic sign; the divine nature of the church; sin in and of the church etc. The study should develop in three steps. The first would be to assemble documentation and a summary of ecclesiological material from Faith and Order, bilateral dialogues, and united and uniting churches. The second step would be to work out “a draft outline of basic ecumenical perspectives on ecclesiology”; in the last stage the work would concentrate on “specific aspects which require further work”, including ministries of women in the church, and authority in the church. 20 The work on the ecclesiology text 17 Participants in the July 1990 Etchmiadzin meeting included Viken Aykazian, Juryi Avvakumov, Martin Cressey, S. Mark Heim, William Henn, John Hind, Margot Kaessmann, Diane Kessler, and Emmanuel Lane. 18 Commission on Faith and Order, Minutes of the Standing Commission Held at the Scottish Churches’ House Dunblane, Scotland 16-24 August, 1990, Geneva, WCC, F&O Paper 152, 28-30. 19 Ibid., 28. 20 Commission on Faith and Order, Minutes of the Standing Commission Held at the Scottish Churches’ House Dunblane, Scotland 16-24 August, 1990, Geneva, WCC, F&O Paper 152, 28-30; 32-37. This is the first detailed plan of the ecclesiology study. Late in 1996 it will become the starting point for drafting of The Nature and Purpose of the Church .